On-line version ISSN 2411-9717Print version ISSN 0038-223X

J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. vol.110 n.8 Johannesburg Aug. 2010

Prediction of blast induced ground vibrations in Karoun III power plant and dam: A neural network

M. Kamali; M. Ataei

Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Iran

SYNOPSIS

In this research, in order to predict the peak particle velocity (PPV) (as vibration indicator) caused by blasting projects in the excavations of the Karoun III power plant and dam, three techniques including statistical, empirical, and neural network were used and their results were interpreted and compared. First, multivariate regression analysis (MVRA) was used as statistical approach. Next, PPV was predicted using some widely used empirical models. Lastly, an artificial neural network was used. In the ANN model, maximum charge per delay, total charge per round, distance from blast site, direction of firing, blasthole length, number of blastholes, total delay in milliseconds, number of delay intervals, and average specific charge were taken into consideration as input parameters and consequently the PPV as output parameter. The results of the techniques were interpreted from two points of view. Firstly, the correlation between the observed data and predicted ones, secondly the total error between observed data and predicted ones. The MVRA had a satisfactory correlation but its error of estimation was comparatively very high. The empirical model had reliable correlation and a small error of estimation; in total the results of empirical method were more reliable than those of MVRA. Generally, the ANN approach showed very high correlation and a very small error. The results of this research indicated that the ANN model is the best predicting model for PPV in comparison with other approaches.